Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury may have said he remained confident after his team’s 27-3 loss to TCU on Saturday but the look on his face told another story.

This was the look of a coach who couldn’t find answers as to why his team has performed the way it has, especially on offense, the area where the Red Raiders have made their mark for almost two decades.

Now the Red Raiders (5-6, 2-6 in Big 12) go into Austin for a 7 p.m. game today on Fox with bowl eligibility on the line against Texas (6-5, 5-3).

Texas Tech must find a way to win one more game at a place that has been tough on the Red Raiders. They have only won there six times in 36 meetings and only twice in Austin twice in the last 20 years, and those last two wins came against some bad Longhorn teams.

While this Longhorn team is not the team many expected them to be at the beginning of the year and its offense can be inconsistent at times, the Longhorns are not void of talent, are already bowl eligible and have played better overall than the Red Raiders.

But Texas is building under first year coach Tom Herman. For the Red Raiders, this is year five under Kingsbury and many wonder if there will be a year six.

The Red Raider fan base is getting restless and that is saying a lot for a group of fans, who are not blinded by unrealistic expectations like other big name programs.

If Texas Tech finds a way to win, it will become bowl eligible and Kingsbury will take a break from asking questions about his future.

If they lose, what will happen next?

Kingsbury is still under contract for another three seasons and he is guaranteed more than $6.7 million. That may be a drop in the bucket for some programs but never has Texas Tech paid someone that much money to just go away. There is talk that the money is there for a buyout, but I’ll believe it when I see it. The few big money boosters there are would rather see the money go to facilities that will stand for decades than to give that to someone to stop being a head coach at their university.

Athletic director Kirby Hocutt rolled the dice when he hired Kingsbury and he wants desperately for the young coach to succeed. But the heat has to be coming down on him too and it’s probably easier to come on ESPN and answer questions about the College Football Playoff rankings than it is to answer questions about his head football coach.

So the easy thing to do is for the Red Raiders to win tonight. If this is a team that truly is better than what its record shows and truly believes in each other and its head coach, then they’ll accomplish that.

But if they go in there and play like their record shows, it could be a very long offseason on the South Plains.

My pick: Texas 42, Texas Tech 28.

Here are my latest Big 12 power rankings:

1.Oklahoma (10-1, 7-1) – Take away Baker Mayfield’s crude behavior and Kansas refusing to shake hands at the coin toss, the Sooners did what they had to do in a 41-3 beatdown of the Jayhawks. OU looks to close out the regular season in style when it hosts West Virginia in a 2:45 p.m. Saturday game on ESPN.

2. TCU (9-2, 6-2) – Thanks to Oklahoma State getting tripped up against Kansas State, the Horned Frogs jump back into that position by grounding Texas Tech’s Air Raid, 27-3. The Frogs now have a chance at getting into the Big 12 title game, but they must take care of business against Baylor at 11 a.m. today on the Fox Sports Network.

3. Oklahoma State (8-3, 5-3) – The Cowboys got tripped up in a 45-40 loss to Kansas State and now are on the outside looking in for the Big 12 championship game. At least they have Kansas at 11 a.m. Saturday on Fox Sports 1 to close out the regular season

4. Iowa State (7-4, 5-3) – The Cyclones snapped a two-game losing streak with a 23-13 win over Baylor and now look to put themselves in position for one of the better bowls with a win at Kansas State at 2:30 p.m. Saturday on ESPN2.

5. Kansas State (6-5, 4-4) – Coach Bill Snyder found a way to get his team bowl eligible as the Wildcats have won three of their last four games. They now look to close out the regular season with a home win against Iowa State.

6. Texas (6-5, 5-3) – The Longhorns jump up to this spot after getting a 28-14 win at always tough West Virginia. They would love nothing better than to add to the Red Raiders’ misery tonight.

7. West Virginia (7-4, 5-3) – The Mountaineers not only lost the game to Texas but lost starting quarterback Will Grier four to six weeks with a broken middle finger. WVU now turn to backup Chris Chugunov on Saturday with hopes of derailing Oklahoma’s playoff hopes.

8. Texas Tech (5-6, 2-6) – It comes down one final game at Texas to determine if Tech is bowl eligible or not. Unless there is some sort of resurrection within this team, they look they will be making other plans for the Christmas break.